My name is Daniel. I was an English teacher in Seoul, South Korea, and am now a writer who has

published three books including South Korea: Our Story by Daniel Nardfini.

                  Five Chinese air force planes flew over South Korea's territorial airspace. This act was

no accident. It was a deliberate show of force against the Republic of Korea that China does not

respect South Korea's sovereignty. But China's territorial bullying goes further. It seems that North

Korea has sold off its west coast territorial water fishing rights to China. Because of this, North

Korean fishermen must now do their fishing on the east coast. This presents three major problems.

First, the east coast waters are much rougher and less predictable than the west coast. North

Korean fishing boats were never meant for the rough waters on the east coast, and it would

not be unusual if these boats got destroyed in the rough weather and frequent storms that

go through the east coast. Second, the east seas offer less chances to haul in a large catch of

fish, so the North Korean fishing boats must go further out with less provisions and less fuel

to make any catches at all. This is why so many North Korean fishing boats have washed on to

Japanese coasts with dead crews. They simply ran out of fuel and food. Finally, what catches they

can make are in Japan's exclusive economic zones and the Japanese coast guard ships will chase

away the North Korean boats any way they can. This can only be described as a terrible tragedy.

The North Korean government has betrayed its own people. It sold its west coast fishing rights

to China for U.S. $75 million (the fish catches along the west coast are worth much more money

than that). The North Korean fishermen now cannot bring in enough fish catches to make a

living, and run a real risk of dying on the seas. And just as equally tragic, if they are caught

by the Japanese, they will be forced to pay heavy fines which they simply cannot or be

imprisoned.